


Thanks to Your Voice

by HyperLittleNori (Shiguresan)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hales, Alternate Universe, Comfort fic, Fluff, IT Consultant Stiles, Kissing, M/M, Meet-Cute, Prompt Fic, Romance, Stressed Office Worker Derek, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, feel good fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-04-05 07:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19044334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiguresan/pseuds/HyperLittleNori
Summary: Stress, overworked and overwhelmed, Derek finds himself smiling in spite of himself while on the phone to one of their guys at IT support. He has a nice voice, one that Derek just wants to lose himself in, so Derek looks him up, forgetting that he's logged into Derek's computer remotely so he can see everything he is doing...





	Thanks to Your Voice

**Author's Note:**

> After I finished my lengthy Sterek story Radio Tower and submitted my assignments for the Steter Reverse Bang, I wanted a few shorter projects to work on to give myself a breather before I dive into the two long Sterek stories I have sitting waiting for me. I asked one of the Sterek groups on Facebook if they had any prompts/wish fics they wanted me to write for them. This one is for Veronika who made the request and Aya who originally posted the prompt/idea to the group. This was so fun to write, it lifted my spirits so I hope you both enjoy! :)

 Whoever coined the phrase ‘The Customer is Always Right’ was a colossal idiot, in Derek’s opinion. Customers were assholes. He didn’t know if they thought being rude would actually make him suddenly able to achieve what he had told them was impossible, or if they just didn’t care that he was an actual human being at the end of the phone. He had targets to meet by tomorrow morning if he wanted to keep at the top of the leader board, and so on the path to promotion, and two of his suppliers couldn’t meet his date, which was somehow his fault.

 

 Derek pressed the _return_ key angrily and then paused to rub his eyes, as if massaging them could obliterate the stress making every tendon in his body throb with tension. Everything ached. But he’d risen from the cubicles outside to a senior sales executive with his own office, he’d dealt with this kind of pressure before and if he wanted to get higher in a company with absolutely no ties to his family whatsoever, he _had_ to hit his target. He was good under pressure, he was, he could do this. He was so close to that promotion he could taste it.

 

 Drawing in a breath to regroup, he sat straighter in his chair and returned to his emails. He frowned at the little exclamation mark in the bottom right hand corner of the email window.

 

 Half an hour later, panic had set in. He’d restarted his email, he’d restarted the computer and his emails still weren’t working. His phone was ringing and he couldn’t do a damn thing. Nothing loaded, nothing sent. By the time he got his shit together and dialled for IT he thought his muscles had actually seized with tension.

 

 “Hi, you’re through to IT, can I help you?”

 

 “You can do whatever it takes, and fast.” He hesitated at the silence at the end of the phone and exhaled heavily. No need to become the kind of person who expected being an asshole to win miracles. “I’m sorry, I…that was rude. Please, can you help me?”

 

 A warm, husky laugh sounded on the phone, gentle and not unkind, trickling through Derek’s senses like whisky in his system.

 

 “Don’t worry, dude, end of the month right? Target deadline. So how can I help?”

 

 Derek entered the password to give the guy permission to enter his computer remotely when prompted and as was protocol in their company, he stayed on the line.

 

 “So, _Derek Hale, Senior Sales,_ huh?” the warm voice asked. “Any chance that’s the same as _Hale and Hale_?”

 

 Derek watched his computer work of its own volition, his eyes dropping to the little rectangle in the corner.

 

_Mieczysław Stilinski is logged in to your computer._

 

 “Yeah,” Derek admitted. He had a way with customers, even the assholes, but small talk had never been his forte. “Talia Hale is my mother, Peter Hale is my uncle.”

 

 “ _Hale_ -of-a-lot to live up to,” Mieczysław mused and Derek couldn’t help the laugh that was startled out of him by the bad pun.

 

 “Yeah I guess so,” he chuckled, still finding himself staring at the little bar across the bottom that carried the man’s name. When was the last time he’d actually laughed with anyone that wasn’t his family? When was the last time he’d stopped to so much as _breathe_ this close to a deadline?  He usually went incommunicado the last week of the month because he was to unbearable to be around.

 

 He reached for his coffee instinctively and cursed when he found it empty.

 

 “Sorry,” Mieczysław said in response to the growl, “sore subject?”

 

 “No,” Derek replied quickly. “No, not really. Just out of coffee.”

 

 “I feel ya. So it’s not ‘til _Executive Sales_ level that you get a minion to bring you coffee?”

 

 Derek gave a snort of amusement. “We have an unofficial coffee round but I have it on good authority that I’m a _‘solitary dick’_ who doesn’t do his share so I’m not included, which is fair.”

 

 “Own your flaws, my man.” Mieczysław’s movements on the screen had opened up some sort of diagnostics window that even Derek, who was fairly confident with computers, was lost by. “So is all the stress and the exile from the coffee round _worth_ proving yourself a success outside the reach of your family’s influence?”  


 “How did you–?”

 

 “Lucky hunch,” Mieczysław offered. “My dad is Sheriff Stilinski. So, you know, it was pretty hard to get a job without the respect people have for him unduly influencing them, you know? But my dad actually gave the CEO a speeding ticket like six weeks before I was hired so I’m pretty sure I was hired _in spite of him,_ which is nice. I know I’m only here for my talent.”

 

 Derek just listened to him as he went off on a tangent about how his fellow IT workers were simultaneously in adoration and despair of him because of his constant chatter. But as Derek listened himself, he felt himself relax back in his chair, felt something in him calm. Perhaps it was the simple fact that he was allowing himself to stop, relax, inhale and exhale for the first time since the _last_ deadline but Mieczysław did have a nice voice too. A really nice voice and a sort of life to him that Derek couldn’t help but feel lifted by.

 

 On instinct, he pulled up the browser and clicked on the firm’s _LinkedIn_ page. He scanned the list of employees down the side until he saw him. _Mieczysław Stilinski, IT Support._ He clicked, paused at the face on the profile that loaded up. The face was youthfully handsome, boyishly sweet in a way that contrasted to the masculine voice at the other end of the phone. He had a charming sprinkle of moles and there was a mischief in his eyes that caught Derek somehow in the chest.

 

 He couldn’t remember looking at someone, really looking at someone in…forever.

 

 He scrolled through the profile, reading Stiles’s personal statement, that held images and descriptions of some of the projects he’d worked on as well as the opening statement, _‘Please, call me Stiles.’_

 

 “Are you looking for potential employees to be your assistant once you get your big promotion?” Mieczysław – _Stiles_ said from the other end of the phone. “Because let me tell you, dude, I make a mean cup of coffee but I don’t think you could afford me. And besides which, I can barely organise my own stuff, no way am I PA material.”

 

 Derek stared at his screen, horrified. It felt like the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. “You…what?”

 

 Stiles laughed and this time Derek felt his face heat in a way that wasn’t entirely from mortification at being caught. Because Stiles was accessing his computer remotely and Stiles could therefore _see_ everything he had been doing. Of course he could. Derek knew that, he’d just…

 

 “I’m sorry,” Derek breathed at last, “It’s been a long month.”

 

 “I can tell by all these emails,” Stiles mused, clicking back onto his email window and working through something in the server settings. “So…is my voice really so interesting that you had to put a face to it?”  


 “I…yeah, actually.” The honesty spilled out of him unbidden, as if tugged from his lips by Stiles’s soothing cadence. Desperate to say something, anything to escape the awkward silence, Derek added, “You have a nice voice.”

 

 Perhaps silence would’ve been better.

 

 He wondered if Sheriff Stilinski would be paying him a visit later to warn him about the sentence for stalking.

 

 “Wow, I…I’ve actually never heard that before, usually people just tell me to shut up.” He just talked so easily, about everything, anything. Even when it was awkward or Derek felt lost for words Stiles just carried on going again. It was so refreshing to the self-imposed solitude he’d thought he wanted. And he wasn’t freaked out, or at least he didn’t sound it.

 

 “You have a very tidy desktop,” Stiles said then and Derek’s thoughts stopped.

 

 “That is the weirdest compliment I’ve ever had.”

 

 “It is a huge compliment.” Stiles’s smile was audible through the phone. “I might sound like a frenetic goof ball but I have the tidiest desktop you ever saw. Organised chaos. I’ll have to show you sometime.”

 

 “That…that sounds like the nerdiest pick-up line I’ve ever heard.

 

 A faux gasp came down the other end of the phone. “Dude, it’s _geek_ , not _nerd_ , have some consideration for the flawed labelling system of our society.”

 

 “You are something else.” Derek’s own face hurt a little from smiling.

 

 “No one has ever said that to me and meant it as a nice thing.”

 

 Derek’s heart stuttered. “Well I did,” he said slowly. “Mean it as a nice thing.”

 

 There was the briefest silence and then, “well here’s another nice thing, your emails are working. As we speak all the ones you had sitting in your outbox have sent and they’re coming in thick and fast.”

 

 Derek was jolted from the floaty, warm sensation of just moments ago as he saw the time on some of the incoming emails that had been trapped in the server. Shit. Almost two hours behind when their damned company policy said they had to reply within an hour to all clients.

 

 Fuck.

 

 “Oh my god, thank you, thanks so much, I just…shit seventy unread…”

 

 “Man…” He thought he could hear Stiles wince down the phone. “I’ll let you get to that. Good talk dude, I’ll come upstairs sometime, show you my desktop.”

 

 Derek reached for his keyboard and mouse. He stared for a split-second longer than was necessary at the little grey bar that now read ‘ _Mieczysław Stilinski has logged out of your computer.’_ It took him a beat to realise that their phone line was still connected, long enough to hear Stiles exhale shakily, before the call cut off. Derek dragged the knuckle of his thumb absently across his lip as he returned to his backlog of emails with a little more optimism than before.

 

*

 

 Even with the lessened tension in his shoulders, he remained at his desk long after the main office outside had completely emptied. He was even there when the cleaner came by to empty the trash, though she thankfully said she’d come back to vacuum his office last. He’d hit his target though and his orders were back on track, even though the stress of organising one of the boxes to be delivered by taxi to his customer’s event had nearly wiped him out.

 

 He dragged a hand over his face, breathing a little lighter in the calm quiet of the deserted office and just started to empty his emails when, by accident, he clicked on one of his minimised browser windows and Stiles’s face came back up again. He stared into brown eyes as his mind started to wind down from the stress of his biggest target yet, relief spreading through his every muscle like he’d sunk into a warm bath. He smiled absently as the voice echoed in his head, his mind processing the day at last in the first break he’d allowed himself all day.

 

_“Hale-of-a-lot to live up to…?”_

_“You have a very tidy desktop.”_

 

 He shook his head slightly, closing the window to tidy up his inbox before he signed off for the weekend. Then he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He saw someone enter the main office outside, winding their way around the cubicles toward the offices of senior sales, toward _his_ office. As they got closer, he blinked in astonishment as he recognised the face.

 

 Stiles knocked on his door, which was already open, carefully balancing two coffees and two cupcakes in his hands so that he was only half looking at Derek. “I haven’t brought my desktop but I have brought you coffee,” he offered brightly. Stepping inside, he set a paper cup and a cupcake onto the corner of his desk, nudging them toward Derek with long, dextrous fingers. “I thought I’d take the chance you were still here.”

 

 He dragged the chair from the opposite side of Derek’s desk to sit at his side, but only when he sat back did he really look at him. He looked exactly and yet nothing like the _LinkedIn_ profile picture. Here he was pink-cheeked from his walk upstairs, hair in artful disarray, a slight shadow of stubble showing in the unnatural office light. He had his shirt opened at the collar and the mischievous light in his eyes looked almost supernaturally stunning.

 

 It had him so stumped that it took Derek a second to realise Stiles was also just staring at him.

 

 “What’s wrong?” he asked, frowning.

 

 Stiles’s lips moved soundlessly for a beat before his tongue swept across them, drawing Derek’s eyes to the motion even as he spoke. “It just didn’t, ah…you just sounded so…and I just wanted to…” He bit his lip before dragging his hand through his hair self-consciously. “Wow. Okay, this is going to sound really lame but I looked you up too, obviously, but I didn't go that deep and there weren't many pictures and you're always like half-turned away as if you're trying to escape the camera, or scowling at it. So I knew what you looked like but I didn't really _know_ , you know? I didn't expect you to be this hot, in person, I mean. Not because you didn’t _sound_ hot earlier or look good in the half-blurred, poorly orientated candid shots but, well, I’m not really that lucky, you know? I thought you'd be averagely attractive but you're so, _so_ not.”

 

 Derek stared at him until he met his gaze again. When he did, the flush had intensified a fraction and yet that only intensified Stiles’s charm. Then Stiles gave a little embarrassed laugh that made his eyes glitter and Derek’s stomach flipped.

 

 “Oh man, I thought I was so smooth coming up here. I’m so not good with smooth.” He looked so flustered and wonderful, even when the self-assured stride that had carried him in there had abandoned him the second their eyes met. He sipped his coffee, more for something to do than because he actually needed it, Derek thought. But just like on the phone, he kept talking, as if he couldn’t stop.

 

 “I wanted to march on up here like some cool dude and ask you if you wanted to come out for coffee, but you seemed like you’d be too stressed earlier, so I brought the coffee to you.”

 

 “And a cupcake,” Derek said before he could stop himself, tone blank with his own awkwardness, that often came across as blunt rudeness. To his relief though, Stiles only grinned.

 

 “They are _so_ good. If anything can de-stress you, it’s these cupcakes.” He nudged the large cupcake, that was more muffin sized, really in Derek’s direction. “Try it seriously. Or…” He grimaced as he glanced at Derek’s computer. “Or you know, whenever you finish. Am I bothering you right now?” His rambling was even faster paced than it had been on the phone earlier, his anxiety apparently amplified by his unexpected attraction to Derek.

 

 Derek couldn’t help but find that charming too.

 

 “Actually,” he said, a little awkward himself, whatever Stiles may think about his appearance and what that would mean for his confidence, he didn’t do this a lot, or ever, really. Trying to prove himself apart from his family’s reputation took up so much of his focus. And besides which – people. He’d always been a lone wolf really, outside of his family. People weren’t really his thing. But perhaps just maybe Stiles could be.

 

 “I’m just finishing up,” he continued after a moment, “if you don’t mind waiting, that is?”

 

 God, what a pair they made, both stumbling over their own words because they both felt it so prominently. The spark between them.

 

 The smile Stiles gave him was blinding. “Wow, yeah that’d be…that’d be pretty great, actually.” He sat back a little more in his stolen chair, carefully pulling apart his cupcake with long, dextrous fingers, obviously being very careful not to leave any crumbs on the carpet.

 

 Derek worked through his remaining emails, relishing in the soothing background noise of Stiles talking out loud about the people he worked with down in IT, the project he was working on currently to help automate some of their grunt work. Then he cocked his head at what Derek was doing, wheeling the stolen office chair closer until he was right at Derek’s elbow.

 

 “So I mean…I can show you some shortcuts if you want? Only if you want. I mean you’re pretty efficient but there are some keys I could show you to just…”

 

 “Stiles,” Derek said and Stiles practically jumped at the first sound of Derek saying his name, staring at him in wide-eyed surprise. Derek watched him chew his lip and struggled to tear his gaze up to meet his eyes rather than stare at his mouth. “Show me.”

 

 He swore he heard Stiles’s breath hitch, as if those two little words, said so softly held so much more meaning. Maybe they did, or at least could someday, if just sitting this close to Stiles made his stomach clench and his skin prickle this way.

 

 Stiles leaned in a little closer, eyes on the screen as he went through a few quick shortcuts on the keyboard. He was right, they would make things quicker. He even helped to set up some default signatures to send out, saving him from copying and pasting with every sample or order acknowledgement.

 

 “So all you have to do is click the relevant signature and it’ll pretty much have the email set up for you. Attach and send my friend,” Stiles said brightly, but then they both reached for the mouse at the same time to close the practice window and froze.

 

 Stiles’s breath hitched in that way again. He studied Derek’s face carefully, as if he’d find the answers for what to say there. In the end, he moistened his lips nervously before saying softly, “I didn’t get the chance to say earlier, but you have a nice voice too.”

 

 How did the bashful delivery of that compliment have him blushing still?

 

 Derek smiled, ducking his head and shutting down his computer, before reaching for his coffee. He stood as the screen went dark, tucking his chair under with one hand , then froze at the first sip of the coffee. “How did you know this was my order?” he asked Stiles’s mischievous smirk that just _did_ things to his insides.

 

 “I’m not the only one who can ‘net stalk someone.” Stiles unlocked his phone with a laugh and waved the screen in Derek’s direction. It displayed the _Facebook_ post Derek’s sisters had apparently tagged him in a few weeks ago. It was a photo of the three of them with a lot of emojis and sparkly text around the edges. They were all armed with matching coffees, Derek's obscuring the lower half of his face, and Laura and Cora were squeezed in around him with grins on their faces.

 

  _‘Yes please! Three salted caramel lattes with marshmallows and cream to go please! @Derek Hale @Laura Hale.’_

He so rarely logged into social media that he hadn’t even realised she’d tagged him in it. It was unmistakeably Cora’s handwork even, even if it weren’t for the helpful caption. He felt his face heat in spite of himself. Sisters.

 

 “It’s a nice photo,” Stiles said with almost fondness to his voice. “I wish I had siblings sometimes to share things like that with.” When finally Derek looked at him again he added, “You have a pretty amazing face, you know? Especially when you have this, not-quite smile thing going on. You should do that more than your frowny scowl of overworked concentration – although, to be fair, they both look pretty good on you.”

 

 Derek gave a soft laugh and shook his head, checking everything at his desk was turned off before heading toward the door. He grabbed his jacket off the hook on the way out and fell into stride with Stiles on the way toward the elevator.

 

 Stiles seemed more at ease the more they walked, his eyes flicking to Derek as he sipped at his coffee. A simple courtship, he supposed, the acceptance of the simple gift setting at ease a lot of the tension between them. They just clicked. Stiles had this witty, chatty disposition and he had this way of drawing even Derek into conversation.

 

 They tossed their coffees into the recycling in the kitchenette right by the elevator, and Derek listened to him contentedly, nodding along in agreement or the counterpoint as he ate his cupcake. He had quite the sweet tooth, he wondered if there were any incriminating tagged posts on _Facebook_ that betrayed that fact or if Stiles had just made a lucky guess? Either way, he savoured the delicious frosting, the light fluffy sponge and tried not to notice the way Stiles was _trying_ not to watch him enjoy it.

 

 Laura always teased him that a grown man shouldn’t love cakes as much as he did. But, well, it seemed his secret was out now. The thought of Stiles knowing such an inconsequential yet intimate detail about him made him insides clench again in approval.

 

 “So,” Stiles ventured as they stepped into the elevator, after the cupcake was gone and the wrapper disposed of. “Still think I have a nice voice? Not getting on your nerves yet? My dad says half hour with me, tops is enough for someone to decide if they can tolerate me or not.” He said it with a light air of amusement but there was a vulnerability there too, a hopeful look in his eyes

 

 A tiny smile touched at Derek’s lips. He stared straight ahead, watching the lights make their slow way down the floors.

 

 “I think I just had the best day in a long time, thanks to your voice.”

 

 Stiles smiled shyly and cocked his head. “Oh yeah?”

 

 “Mmm.” After a heartbeat, Derek turned his head to look at him, to realise just how close together they had been standing. They gravitated toward each other, Stiles’s head tilted just a little in welcome. Their lips touched, just briefly, the barest of butterfly kisses and when Derek’s eyes opened, Stiles’s were glassy and dark with appreciation. Derek made a noise in his throat at the sight of it.

 

 “Man, you’re gonna kill me,” Stiles breathed hoarsely, “you’re so hot.”

 

 Derek smirked, reaching for his cheek but as he did so, the chime of the elevator doors opening drew him back to himself.

 

 “So,” Stiles ventured as they walked passed the security guard at the reception desk with the least subtle blushes in the world. “How about that coffee? Uh, another, I mean, another coffee.”

 

 Derek tried very hard not to smile. “I could go for coffee.” As they stepped out into the already dark evening, he slipped his hand into Stiles and felt his fingers grip back.


End file.
